Dog That Bit Boy Adopted Out; Wrong Dog Put Down

YORKVILLE, Ill. (CBS) — Officials in Kendall County say a dog that bit a 6-year-old boy at a shelter was put up for adoption, while another dog that had done nothing wrong was euthanized.

Kendall County Animal Control administrator Chris Johnson has been put administrative on leave over the mix-up, the Aurora Beacon-News reports.

Animal control officials are looking into getting the violent dog back from its current home in Lake Holiday, a situation made more difficult because the dog is in a different county. Officials will have to make arrangements with DeKalb County to get the dog.

The dog that bit the 6-year-old boy at the Kendall County shelter about a month ago — and bit two other people before that — was not euthanized as it was supposed to be, Johnson admitted Friday.

Instead, shelter workers killed a different bull mastiff.

Animal Control officials had insisted the correct dog had been euthanized, but it turns out the dog was adopted by a couple in the Lake Holiday community in LaSalle County in early July, just a few days after it bit the child.

The shocking information was brought to a special County Board Animal Control Committee meeting Friday morning by Erik Devick, a Yorkville resident involved in dog rescues.

Johnson confirmed the information after Kendall County Board Animal Control Committee chairman Anne Vickery asked her pointedly if the dog was alive or dead.

“He’s alive,” Johnson said. “I made a mistake. The dog I put down, I thought was the one.”

When Vickery asked Johnson how long she knew she had euthanized the wrong dog, Johnson said she found out about a week afterward.

After a question from committee member Nancy Martin, Johnson said the other bull mastiff “had issues,” too.

“That’s why I thought it was the dog,” she said.

A clearly angry Vickery, who up to that moment had insisted to press and the public that the original dog had been euthanized, made a point to say she was repeating information given to her by Johnson.

“This is the first we’ve heard this,” Vickery said. “We had no idea.”

The committee adjourned into closed session. After that session, Vickery announced that Johnson had been placed on leave.

The Aurora Beacon-News contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.